Ohio officials have approved a new $42.3 million tax exemption for a pair of giant data center projects in the Columbus area. The move comes days after Gov. Mike DeWine announced a pause on these kinds of tax exemptions as scrutiny has grown over their mushrooming costs for the state.
The new tax exemption will subsidize Cologix Inc.’s planned data centers in suburban Delaware and Licking counties. As a condition of taking the state tax incentive, the company promises to spend $1.17 billion to build the new data centers. It also agreed to hire 90 full-time workers before 2035 with a payroll of $10 million, or about $111,000 per job, and keep its new facilities operating for at least 13 years.
With the new tax break, the state’s total price tag for data center tax exemptions issued since 2025 rises to nearly $2.17 billion. The data center industry is in a prolonged construction boom, thanks to increased demand and hype associated with artificial intelligence.
The Ohio Tax Credit Authority approved the new tax exemption on Monday at a meeting in downtown Columbus in what will be the last the state approves for the indefinite future. DeWine announced a pause on new data center tax breaks last Wednesday, exempting a project he said was already in the works – the Cologix project.
The governor said the moratorium – announced hours after Signal Statewide reported the tax breaks’ value had grown to nearly $1.6 billion in 2025, or 11 times larger than state estimates – will continue while a special legislative committee holds hearings on data centers. Lawmakers have described the hearings as a way to gather facts about the projects’ effects on the environment, electricity costs and the economy. A hearing was underway at the Statehouse on Monday, where members of the public got the chance to comment.
A group gathering signatures for a long-shot effort to ban large data center projects statewide used the occasion to hold a press conference updating the public on their efforts. Members of the group later testified before the special legislative data center committee.
More about the new projects
In late 2024, Cologix, which rents out computing capacity to other companies, announced it would spend $7 billion in the Columbus area to build a complex of data centers. When construction is complete, the company said the centers will use 800 megawatts of electricity, roughly the same amount of power a city the size of Cleveland or Cincinnati might use. Part of the terms of the new tax exemption approved on Monday require the company to also retain nearly $5.2 million in payroll at its existing locations.
Allison Rowland, an official with One Columbus, an economic development nonprofit, told members of the Tax Credit Authority on Monday that the new exemptions will go to a pair of projects.
One, in Delaware County, will be built on a 25-acre site and initially will use 25 megawatts of electricity, and perhaps grow to as large as 75 megawatts, depending on future power availability.
The other, in Johnstown in Licking County – the same general area as the massive, under-construction Intel plant – is on a 150-acre site. The larger facility will use 75 megawatts of electricity at first and could grow as large as 176 megawatts.
Rowland said Cologix also considered building its new data centers in Minnesota, Iowa and Canada. The state tax break was a “highly critical factor” in the company’s decision to choose Ohio, she said.
The company provides colocation services – renting out computing space and power to other businesses – and builds its facilities close to end customers to reduce lag time and improve computing speed.
Cologix serves 200 customers in its existing service area in Columbus, Rowland said. Most of those are small and medium-sized businesses, but customers also include several large companies, including prominent consumer brands, she said.
“State support will ensure that these proposed projects move forward in Ohio,” Rowland said.
Before the vote, Rowland fielded a couple questions from Tax Credit Authority board member Debora McGraw.
In response to one question, Rowland said the Delaware County data center will buy its power from American Electric Power, while the larger facility in Johnstown will be in the service territory for both AEP and the Energy Cooperative, a rural-coop based in the area.
McGraw also asked about local government support for the projects. In response, Rowland said the smaller project is getting a 10-year, 50% property tax abatement from the Delaware County government, plus additional income tax break and another type of property tax subsidy, while the larger project is getting a 15-year, 100% property tax abatement from the Johnstown city government.
“The proposed developments by Cologix in both Orange Township and Johnstown bring significant investment in tax generation. Neither community has ever experienced industrial investment at this scale,” Rowland said.
More on data centers in Ohio
Ohio, and the Columbus area more particularly, has emerged in recent years as a top national market for data centers. There currently are 204 data centers in Ohio, the sixth-most of any state, according to an industry consultancy.
Ohio has used its data center tax exemption, which gives recipients a 50% reduction in their state sales tax bill on the purchase of the pricey computer equipment that stocks the facilities, as a perk to attract industry investment.
But the tax break’s price tag has exploded in recent years, reaching $554.9 million in 2024 and $1.568 billion in 2025 – compared to state estimates of around $133 million a year.
The industry’s rapid expansion has caused a local political backlash, with residents complaining about the facilities’ size and environmental impact. Data centers also have been scrutinized for the strain they place on the electrical system, via their massive energy use and the costly grid upgrades – both of which have the potential to drive electricity prices upward.
Republican legislators tried to eliminate the state’s data center tax exemption last summer, but DeWine blocked them with a veto. GOP House Speaker Matt Huffman has announced plans to overturn the veto, but has said he’s so far been unable to muster enough Republican votes to do so.
